World Water Day

March 22 is WORLD WATER DAY. Water is a basic requirement for all life, yet water resources are facing increasing demands from, and competition among, users. In 1992, the UN General Assembly designated 22 March of each year as the World Day for Water.

Visit http://www.worldwaterday.org/ to learn more! This year's topic is Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge.

Fix a Leak Week!

It's Fix a Leak Week! March 14-20, 2011!

According to the U.S. EPA, more than 1 trillion gallons of water leak from U.S. homes each year. So check your plumbing fixtures and irrigation systems this week to make sure you aren't contributing.

You can take the pledge here: http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/pledge/

Fix a Leak Week is sponsored by the U.S. EPA's WaterSense program.

Become a fan of NJWSA on Facebook!

rain, rain

In this field, every time it rains (at least an inch of rain), we've got projects and sites to visit. And yesterday, it rained, so out we went. I do enjoy donning my knee-high rubber boots, and this gives me the perfect opportunity.

We visit some of our rain gardens.... (below is one of the Van Derveer School rain gardens from a September 2010 storm)


we look for other potential problem areas...

(This is the Peters Brook)

and sometimes we take samples...


All of this gives us insight into what might be negatively affecting water quality and how we can potentially improve it.

Raritan Rain Barrel Workshop - Photos of the Week!

Last Thursday, about 30 people gathered in Elizabeth Avenue Park in Raritan to build rain barrels. This is part of the ongoing Peters Brook Stormwater Reduction Project, which Rutgers Cooperative Extension is a partner. We made the news!


For more information about rain barrels, visit our rain barrel page.

Upcoming Rain Barrel Workshops

We (NJWSA and Rutgers Cooperative Extension) will be hosting three rain barrel workshops in the month of August! The popularity of the Somerville workshop in June sparked quite an interest, so we have expanded our Peters Brook project to include two additional neighborhoods (in addition to the initial neighborhood in Somerville around Walck Park): a neighborhood near Elizabeth Ave Park in Raritan, and a neighborhood just off of Foothill Road in Bridgewater.

The dates:

Raritan: August 19, 6-8pm at Elizabeth Ave Park
Somerville: August 26, 6-8pm at Walck Park
Bridgewater: August 28, 10am-noon at Somerset County Vo-Tech

If you are interested in one of the rain barrel workshops, please contact Pat Rector at rector@njaes.rutgers.edu

Read more information about rain barrels on our website!

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Rain barrels!

On June 10, we (along with Rutgers Cooperative Extension) held a Build-A-Barrel workshop that was targeted for a community along the Peters Brook in Somerville. The general premise behind the targeted community is that Rutgers (as well as us) are looking to quantify the effect of small best management practices--or BMPs-- (such as rain barrels and rain gardens) on stream flow. We're hoping that these BMPs will reduce the amount of water that reaches the Peters Brook, and in turn, will carry less pollutants to the waterway and reduce erosion due to high volume flows.

So we held the workshop, and about 35 people showed up, many from the targeted community, and 26 barrels were built. Nearly everyone that attended wanted at least one extra barrel, and many people walked by the park and wanted to join if we held another workshop. So, I would say that it was a success!


Here are some more photos from the evening (or visit our photo gallery for the complete collection!):




More information about the stormwater project on our Peters Brook page or you can read some of the press about this event on our News page.

We are planning additional Build-A-Barrel workshops to be held in each of the three Peters Brook communities (Bridgewater, Somerville, and Raritan). We are planning for August 2010. In the meantime, you can learn more about rain barrels!